On February 25, 2015, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a final rule extending eligibility for employment authorization to certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B nonimmigrants who are seeking employment-based lawful permanent resident status.
Now, DHS has published a proposed rule to remove these H-4 dependent spouses from the class of aliens eligible for employment authorization. This would appear to reverse the 2015 H-4 EAD rule, and appears consistent with the Trump Administration’s aims under Executive Order 13788 (“Buy American and Hire American”). No details about how the reversal will be implemented have been shared at this stage.
Jewell Stewart & Pratt is monitoring developments and will post more information here when it becomes available. The U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services’ Buy American and Hire American webpage can be found here. Our prior blog posts related to the beginning of the H-4 EAD rule can be found here, here, and here.
© Jewell Stewart & Pratt PC 2017